The schools around Radley are strong, and the state system across the county is mostly good or better. Nearly nine in ten graded schools clear that bar. The village has its own Church of England primary within walking distance. Secondary means a bus or a lift to Abingdon. The famous school is the one most local children won't go to.
Oxfordshire County Council's area has 121 schools and settings with a published Ofsted grade, and 108 of them are rated good or outstanding, close to nine in ten. Eleven are outstanding. Ten require improvement and three are inadequate, so the county does have a tail, though a short one. Another 151 settings across Oxfordshire have no published grade yet, which only means Ofsted hasn't graded them. It says nothing about how good they are. Ofsted works at county level, so these are Oxfordshire's numbers, and you'll want to look up the actual report for each school you're considering.
Places are handed out under Oxfordshire's published admissions rules. Living close to a school gives you priority under those rules, but it doesn't guarantee you a place, and in any one year the outcome depends on who else applied. The thing to look up is the council's allocation history for the secondary you want, meaning how far away the last child to get a place lived, before the house becomes the plan. A buyer who reads admissions criteria in the evening tends to sleep better in March.
Radley Church of England Primary School is the village school, and the Department for Transport's 2019 model puts the nearest primary about a twelve-minute walk from the average home. For secondary, the Abingdon options include Fitzharrys School, John Mason School and Larkmead School. The same model puts the nearest secondary about 28 minutes away by public transport, which is a planning point for any family without a spare driver at 8am. Abingdon and Witney College handles a lot of the post-16 courses.
The fee-paying schools are heavily represented. Radley College is a boys' boarding school and the institution most people outside Oxfordshire know the village for. Abingdon School and St Helen and St Katharine are close by, and Europa School UK takes both primary and secondary pupils. Radley's most famous school dominates the skyline far more than it shapes local school choices. Most families here are applying to schools in Abingdon.
Schools are one of Radley's real strengths. The county system is solid, the village primary is a walk away, and the main thing a family has to work out is the journey to secondary.